Small Offerings
by OtakuSailorV
Summary: A collection of drabbles. Various genres, ratings and pairings.
1. Ever After

**Title:** Ever After

**Genre:** Drama/Angst/AU

**Theme: **Unhappy Endings, Week #19

**Word Count: **398

**Rating:** PG

**Pairing:** Hakudoushi/Shiori

**Summary:** She would live _un_happily ever after till the end of her days.

A length of rope lay forgotten on the broken ground, a lonely tanned figure clad in fine silk standing by not too far off, her purple eyes swimming in a veil of unshed tears.

She was looking up at the dome-like structure that was her own personal barrier. The dark colors changed from fuchsia to violet to almost a pink tint before starting over again, steadily getting darker.

Looking down at the ground, she kicked uselessly at the rope and walked on, dragging her bruised feet slowly, half-hoping that he would cut carelessly through her barrier again.

He was cutting her heart whenever he did that, but he didn't care; he felt no pain, knew no fear. He trampled on the weak with a smirk, with not even a hint of remorse.

Life was miserable anyway, he had claimed, so why should be busy himself with emotions like regret when in the end the legions he slaughtered would only meet the same fate by some other hand if not by his?

She didn't want to believe those words, and yet the truth in them ate away, or at least what she perceived as truth.

Stumbling, she winced as her foot dashed against a stone. Pain stung through her heel, but she paid it no mind and simply kept on walking on aimlessly toward the broken wood forest that lay ahead.

She was beyond tears now, though a lump was still caught in her throat, and she was finding it hard to breathe correctly. Of course, that might come from the fact that she had been shoved rather harshly against the ground when he had gone to protect her.

Why? Why had such a blood-crazy monster been driven to help her, a frail and weak hanyou like that? Why did he have to take the brunt of the blow that was meant for her? Why did he have to look with her with such unyielding eyes that slowly faded in his death?

Though she believed she had cried her last, she was amazed to find that a single tear did find its way out, only to trace down her dirt-smeared cheek and disappear in a lock of her blue-silver hair.

She lowered her head in shame obstructing any onlooker's view of her beautiful tanned face.

_And she would live unhappily ever after, till the end of her days. _

* * *

First of a collection of Inuyasha drabbles with multiple pairings, genres and ratings. All were submitted to iyfic(underscore)contest, a community on LiveJournal and shall be posted here after the end of the contests if I participated in them. Hehe. 

Kudos to Skittlez-chan for the idea, theexistence of this pairing andthe idea that I should get off my lazy bum and write for the contest. Amongother things, thanks Skittlez for being my beta-reader for this ficlet as well.

Review Please?


	2. Oukami

**Title:** Oukami

**Genre:** General

**Theme:** Kouga, Week #20

**Word Count: **176

**Rating: **G

**Pairing:** KougaKagome

**Summary: **All his life seemed to be anymore was running, but to what end?

* * *

_Run, run, run…_

All his life seemed to be anymore was running; he ran through forests, over mountains, across flat fields. He dashed through villages, over hilly plains and almost seemed to soar through the air when he jumped down a steep incline.

He loved the feeling of the wind in his hair, the adrenaline pumping through his legs and tearing off at unmatched speeds. There was little more that he could want other than his pack and the simple pleasure of freedom. Kagome happened to be that 'little more' that he sought after when he was roving about.

She had hair like the night sky, and her eyes were shining stars, glinting happily at him. She was human, but she was strong. He could not take her as his mate, not until he had defeated Naraku at least.

Then the running would end, the searching and the fighting would be over and he could live in peace with the girl who had midnight hair.

Until then, he would continue on with this seemingly endless journey.

* * *

Italicized words are lyrics taken from the song _"Run, Wolf Warrior, Run"_ from the anime _**Wolf's Rain**_. 


	3. Hojokun: Sengoku O Togi Zoushi

**Title:** Hojo-kun: Sengoku O Togi Zoushi

**Genre: **AU/Humor/Action/Adventure

**Theme: **Alternate Reality, Week #21

**Word Count: **633

**Rating: **PG

**Pairing: **None

**Summary:** Kagome isn't the only one who fell down a well…

* * *

Higurashi Hojo believed himself to be a very fit, careful young man. He was an upperclassman at his high school and received good grades. He was studious and thoughtful, if not a bit clueless at times. 

On his fifteenth birthday Hojo received a tremendous surprise as a strange four-armed centipede-woman pulled him down an old well. She was babbling on about some jewel as she clawed at his side. Frightened by the grotesque creature that wore nothing at all, he tried to push her away from him. A burst of light shone forth from his hands and blew the centipede woman away into the spiraling darkness.

Crashing to the floor of the well, he hurriedly scrambled up the side of the well because he was a most cowardly young man. Upon landing on the soft grass, Hojo knew he wasn't in Tokyo anymore. For one, he knew they definitely didn't have giant-centipede women in Tokyo.

He discovered the giant God-Tree that grew outside his own home and investigated it only to find that a young man was pinned to the tree. He was older than Hojo by a year or so, and he had long silver hair and cute little dog ears on the top of his head. His eyes opened as Hojo looked on and he saw that he had golden eyes. _'Very unnatural coloring, he must not be eating very well,'_ he thought to himself as he gave him an ugly glare.

"You," he commanded, jerking his chin at him sharply. "Release me."

"W-what? How?" Hojo had stammered.

"Don't be an idiot, pull the arrow out," he replied gruffly.

He swallowed and nodded, because it seemed like the right thing to do. The young man - however ugly in personality - was in need of his services and he couldn't just leave him there. Climbing up, he gripped onto the arrow, only to find that it dissolved as soon as his fingers brushed against it.

The young man gave him a toothy grin, showing off several shiny fangs that glinted in the afternoon light. Hojo started; quite sure that several canines in one mouth were not a good sign. _'He is worse off than I thought,'_ he thought, startled.

He jumped back, falling on his butt in the dirt. A shiny pink object shot from his pocket and dashed against the stones below as he landed, scattering into a million different pieces with a burst of light. The man started, eyeing him in bewilderment.

Hojo blinked and reached inside his pocket stupidly, trying to find the birthday present he had received from his grandfather that morning. The only thing he found was a small sliver of something that pricked his finger. Picking it out of his pocket, he raised it so that he could get a better look at it. It was but a tiny sliver of the jewel.

The young man gasped and came incredibly close, looking at the sliver in disbelief and then turned a disdainful sneer on Hojo who cringed.

"You broke the Shikon Jewel! You idiot, now how the hell am I supposed to become a full demon!" He roared at Hojo angrily.

"W-what?" Hojo stammered, backing away awkwardly. The man with dog-ears and yellow eyes grasped his wrist tightly though and pulled him off into the forest.

"C'mon, you're helping me find the rest of these stupid things," he growled under his breath an extra little tidbit about humans being smelly, ugly and incredibly dense.

So Hojo had many exciting adventures, though he wasn't entirely sure what was going on half the time, and he insisted that everyone eat nourishing, extremely nutritional meals. They would join up with a kitsune kit, a perverted houshi and a taijiya, but those are stories for another time.

THE END?


	4. Not Hentai

**Title: **Not Hentai

**Genre: **Humor

**Theme: **Miroku, Week #22

**Word Count: **227

**Rating:** G

**Pairing: **None

**Summary: **Shameful! Outrageous! He was not a pervert, he preferred the term 'adultery inclined.'

* * *

He was not a hentai, no, not in the least. He was not a perverted monk; his wandering hand was not due to a sick fascination with a woman's posterior. Of course not! Why, he was sickened by the thought that such a thing would be said of him. He believed that he had a most just and holy reason for his obsession with the female sex.

He worshipped them, those that could bear children, those that could be mothers tenderly nurturing their babes. They alone could bring life into the world in such a beautiful way, power beyond that of the holy Buddha they had over life. Why should he not find them so fascinating, this supple and beautiful species that eluded men with coy smiles?

Miroku was no hentai. His tendency to rub a woman's rump or flirt shamelessly with her when he was supposed to be chaste was not because of his curse or because he was simply a womanizer. No, no, he liked to think of himself as more of a gentleman, looking out for the well-being of such flowers and if one of them should chance to come to his bed, he would not turn her away when there was the miracle of life to look forward to.

No, not hentai, not at all. Where would they ever get such an idea?


	5. Daisuki, Daisuki

**Title: **Daisuki, Daisuki

**Genre: **Romance

**Theme: **Gift, Week #23

**Word Count: **241

**Rating:** G

**Pairing: **Izayoi/Inutaishou

**Summary: **It means _'I love you.'_

* * *

He found her late in the evening, standing in the open, under a patch of sun deep in the forest. Her soft black hair ran down her back, over the many folds of her rich kimono that weighed her down and gave her the appearance of being bigger than she actually was. He made no noise as he came upon her and yet she looked in his direction as he approached from among the branches; they exchanged a loving smile.

Her eyes caught the glimmer of the object that he was trying to hide in his clawed hand. Curious, she raised an eyebrow in question; his eyes were dancing with mirth as he came within inches of her and pressed the object into her hands with a warm smile.

She let out a gasp of wonder at the finely worked pearl comb, embedded with precious stones that lay in her palm. There was a small inscription on the back that read simply _daisuki. _She looked up at him and found that he was still beaming, happy that she liked the little comb so much.

"What is this," she felt overwhelmed for the treasure must have cost a small fortune to obtain. "This is too much."

When she tried to return it, he closed her fingers gently back over the comb and moved her hands away, still smiling softly. "No, it is a gift," he assured her. "It means 'I love you.'"


	6. The Haunting

**Title: **Haunting

**Genre: **AU/Supernatural/Horror

**Theme:** Soul, Week #24

**Word Count:** 961

**Rating: **PG

**Pairing: **None

**Summary: **A ghostly figure breathes down your neck: Do you believe in what you cannot see?

* * *

The house was old and it smelled of mildew and mothballs. A rat skittered through the empty room; its tiny claws made a soft scraping sound against the decayed wood floor. The house creaked and groaned like an old man with rheumatism or arthritis. Every creak seemed more prolonged than the last, the tap of a dead tree branch against a dirty window made it sound as if someone were desperately trying to get into the dilapidated old building.

Kohaku hated these kinds of dares, the ones where you had to stay the night in some creepy old house. He shivered as a cold night breeze blew right through the thin blanket he had brought with him. It was strange for the breeze to be chill, for it had been a hot summer day in Tokyo only a few hours before, but Kohaku thought nothing of it as his eyes tried to pierce the surrounding gloom.

Why had he let himself get conned into this by his friends? Well, they had all done it before him; he was the only one that had put it off with excuse after excuse. It wasn't that he was a coward, only that he did not trust what lay waiting in the dark. Sinister shapes grew from simple objects in the moonlight; the stars twinkled in a deceivingly happy manner, calming the troubled spirit of the victim before some unknown creature mauled him. There was simply too much that the darkness hid in its smothering depths, and such secrets made him jittery.

Unable to sleep, he shifted about uncomfortably on the mossy wooden floor. The room he was in was old, considerably old. There were very few western objects in the house – or at least so far as he had seen – and what was about was either broken or so out-of-date that there was no hope of it working correctly any longer. Kohaku wondered to himself how long the building had been abandoned. He could not remember a time when the windows were not broken, when the house did not creak and sigh sadly, when long green vines did not creep up its sides. Hadn't it always been this way? Just this sad, lonely, depressed old house left empty for an eternity?

There was a giggle and the light steps of a child reverberated against the wood. He saw a streak of something orange and black race past the broken shouji door, teetering and giggling merrily. It was a little girl! Kohaku jumped, what was a little girl doing in this place? Didn't she have any sense at all? She could be hurt!

"Hey!" He got to his feet and hurriedly ran after her, forgetting his blanket and shoes still in the room. The girls form raced around a corner and out of sight, in the distance he could still hear her laughter. Taking off after her, he called out again and again, but the child only laughed louder.

He turned corners and dashed through rooms, eventually coming to the backyard. The little girl was still giggling, crouched near some flowers as fireflies danced around her head. Her back was to him still; it was as if she couldn't hear a word he had said.

"Hey, little girl," Kohaku said, gasping for breath as he jumped off the porch into the tall grass in the yard and made his way toward her. "Hey, it's dangerous here, you should go home."

The girl turned toward him with wide, unbelieving eyes, her mouth slightly ajar. Kohaku perfectly mimicked her shock as the hand he had been about to place on her shoulder had slid through her, sending a chill up his spine. His mouth opened wider, his eyes bulging as he stared at his hand, halfway into the little girl's shoulder.

The girl had a different reaction to this though, grabbing his wrist tightly in her chilled hands and smiling brightly. "Are you here to play with me?" She asked excitedly.

He now saw her for what she was, a ragged little girl, her messy black hair pulled into a weird, lop-sided pony-tail on the side of her head, her orange and yellow kimono was dirty and torn and her large brown eyes were shimmering palely. He could see right through her.

Kohaku choked on his words and blinked, not sure if he was seeing things or not. When he opened them again, the little girl was gone, though there was still the cold feeling of some clasping his wrist. Gathering his wits some, Kohaku sped back into the freakish house, ready to gather up his belongings and head home.

He could have handled spending the night in the creaking old house, but that little girl…He shivered, rubbing at his wrist as he came to the door to the room he had been sitting in a few minutes before. Ghosts, he had never really believed in them…

He stopped abruptly, his foot falling with a heavy thud as he saw a tiny white girl standing over his blanket, watching him coolly. Her pitch-black eyes froze him to the spot, they seemed so lifeless. The mirror in her hands shone with moonlight, flashing and capturing his pale, shocked face in its gleaming surface.

"Give me your soul," the girl whispered. There was a flash as a pair of red eyes looked at him from within the mirror, a cold smirk on the twisted face. A harsh cackle filled his ears as he felt something being pulled from his body.

A scream rose through the night, riding on the warm summer breezes. The moon shimmered in the heavens at the sound and the stars giggled knowingly, continuing to soothe those that were frightened by the voices in the night.


	7. A Strand Colored Red

**Title: **A Strand Colored Red

**Genre: **Romance/Supernatural

**Theme: **Mama Higurashi, Week #25

**Word Count: **247

**Rating:** G

**Pairing:** MamaHigurashi/PapaHigurashi

* * *

**Summary: **She looked at him in awe as the string connecting their fingers shimmered and glowed. When she looked back down at it though it had mysteriously disappeared. A strand colored red, connecting them by fate.

Higurashi Ikuko was just a little girl, holding tightly to her father's hand at the train station as she hummed a cute little child's song to herself. Her parents smiled at her placidly.

As she looked about, she spotted another child, a year or so older than her, staring at her as he stood by his father's side. He blushed when Ikuko noticed him and looked away hurriedly only to slowly peeked back over at her a moment later.

She waved at him with a giggle and he returned the wave, his cheeks pink. She started in mild shock when she felt a tug on her finger as he waved at her.

Looking at her hand, she found that a red string was tied to it in a neat little bow. The string shimmered a bit as she noticed that one end of the strand led away from her finger, toward the boy. Her gaze followed the strand to the boy where he was investigating an identical red-string bow.

Her mouth opened for a moment in shock, but the train had arrived while they stared at each other and the crowd of people boarding the train obscured their vision as they bustled by. Her parents pulled her aboard the train and she scurried to the nearest window. She spotted the boy still standing outside, looking at her with a mixture of shock and curiosity. Ikuko looked at his index finger automatically but the red string had vanished.


	8. A Serious Misunderstanding

**Title:** A Serious Misunderstanding

**Genre: **Comedy

**Theme:** Calling His Bluff, Week #27

**Word Count: **247

**Rating: **PG

**Pairing: **Miroku/OC (one-sided)

**Summary: _What!_** This girl looked more like a man than any he had ever seen before! His eye twitched as he realized something: _it was a man_!

* * *

They were in yet another village and there were as many pretty young flowers about as he had ever seen in his whole life. It was so hard to pick which one to ask his favorite question first. His companions were busy looking for clues as to the whereabouts of Naraku and he was too…after he was done here that is.

Thoughtfully, he walked through the crowd of men and women, trying to find the most beautiful of them all. Suddenly he spotted a woman with an hourglass figure. Her back was to him, but he was sure that her face was as beautiful as her curves.

He patted her butt, "Miss, would you do me the honor of bearing my children?"

The muscles under his eyes twitched in shocked disgust as the woman turned toward him in a flurry, letting him get a good look at her features for the first time. Her lips looked swollen and when she smiled at him, she revealed a large gap between her two front teeth. Her nostrils were large and hair stuck out from them so that it appeared that there were bushes stuck up them. Her eyes were slitted and unusually slanted, even for someone from Japan, making her appear somewhat snake-like. She glowed as she grasped Miroku's hands gleefully in her own and babbled a happy 'yes.'

Miroku was in total shock, staring dumbly at her, his mouth open and his eyes wide. What had he done!


	9. Itsy Bitsy Spider 3rd Place

**Title:** Itsy Bitsy Spider

**Genre: **Angst/Drama

**Theme: **Week #28, Trust

**Word Count: **248

**Rating: **PG

**Pairing: **Naraku/Kagome

**Summary: **It's strange how she seems to trust him…

This fiction placed 3rd in iyfic(underscore)contest Week #28, "Trust"

* * *

What is there left for her? A broken future, the Bone-Eater's Well discarded, disenchanted, the mystical portal broken; a dismal past, her friends scattered, her lover in the arms of another. Nothing remains, for all of her optimism, there is nothing left waiting for her. She is lost, wandering blindly, stumbling through war-torn villages and her mind casts about for some reason to go on, some reason to keep living. 

He finds her broken and lost and says in a convincing tone what she had known all along and yet was afraid to admit to herself. How does he know her so well, this villain, this man that is supposed to be her enemy? Or had he been her enemy? She is no longer sure; is she the villain or the heroine of this myth? Her memory is gone, spliced and broken. Her trust is easy to gain and she goes with him, for she believes that he can return to her what has been lost. His lies tangle inside of her heart.

The night never seems to break and the horizon is colored a deep crimson that matches his eyes that shine with pleasure at the sight. He knows he has won; he holds control over the miko, the broken creature that lingers somewhere between insanity and rationality, constantly peering into space as if lost in a far-off memory.

His lies have wound about her, tying her down. She is a prisoner of her own innocent trust.


	10. Pretty Little Picture

**Title:** Pretty Little Picture

**Genre: **Horror/Supernatural/AU

**Theme:** Magic, Week #30

**Word Count: **220

**Rating: **PG

**Pairing: **twisted Renkotsu/Tsubaki

**Summary: **I put a spell on you and now your mine…

* * *

If you had your picture taken, your soul would be sucked out, or so the old superstition said. People had grown beyond that now, but she wondered what would happen if such a thing could really happen. Would the soul be as lovely as she was? If so, then she must have it, must find out if she could attain immortal beauty in some way.

She experimented and researched just how to craft such an evil device, but animals didn't have souls, such a shame. The only thing she had managed to do with her pet snake was change his scales milky white; a week later he had sprouted demonic horns from the top of his head. She would need to test it on a human…

Weeks later she has found that her device can indeed suck out a persons soul and after doing it once she cannot resist going out and stealing souls with her camera again and again. The photos are both lovely and horrible. How very dirty some people are on the inside! More confident than ever in her own beauty, she prepares to take her own picture. She is sure that her photo will be the loveliest of them all.

She spots him though, and the camera seems to whisper evilly: "Can I take your picture?"


End file.
